What is OmiseGO?
OmiseGO is an Ethereum-based platform that intends to create a decentralized, open and public financing system. Its technology enables real-time, peer-to-peer exchanges and payments.
The company intends to solve the basic coordination issues which arise between payment processors, financial institutions and gateways.
How Does OmiseGO Work?
The OmiseGO ecosystem is comprised out of two major components: the blockchain and the wallet.
OmiseGO runs a decentralized exchange on a public blockchain at high volume and low cost. It also serves as a “next-generation value transfer service operating across currencies and asset types.”
Anyone will be able to utilize the OmiseGO network, which is connected to the Ethereum main network, in order to carry out financial transactions. The network makes it possible for users to perform transactions such as payments, remittances, payroll deposit, B2B commerce, supply-chain finance, loyalty programs, asset management and trading, and other services.
The platform will also make enable users to easily switch from using fiat money to using decentralized currencies – such as ETH, BTC, and others. The ultimate goal of OmiseGO is to create a perfect balance in the world of currencies:
“The OmiseGO network is intrinsically agnostic between fiat and decentralized money: as far as adoption and usage go, the system is constructed so that the best currencies will win.”
By eliminating the impediments between currency transactions and trading, OmiseGO will only aid the best currencies to rise to the top.
OmiseGO Features
The blockchain has several core features which make the project unique:
- Decentralized exchange
- Liquidity provider mechanism
- Clearinghouse messaging network
- Asset-backed blockchain gateway
- Scalable and public (permissionless) blockchain
- Proof-of-Stake (PoS) consensus
- High-performing system that leverages interlinked blockchain construction
- Clearing and settlement occurs over the OmiseGO blockchain
The OMG Token
Staring with September 2018, there’s a total supply and a circulating supply of 140,245,398 OMG. There will not be more tokens, as OMG is not minable, the supply capped and there are no plans of issuing in the future.
The token is currently priced at $1.53 and has a market cap of $214,847,042, placing it on 27th position according to cryptocurrency market caps.
The OmiseGO blockchain uses a Proof-of-Stake consensus and the OMG token is based on the ERC-20 protocol.
OMG Plasma Network
OMG has been among the first tokens to start development on the Plasma Network, which is a smart contract network that operates using Ethereum’s network. Vitalik Buterin developed Plasma to run as a child chain of Ethereum.
Plasma was created to manage enterprise-level scalability, having a capacity of up to 1 million transactions per second. This means that it can handle transactions faster than even the Visa network, which has a processing capacity of a maximum of 50,000 transactions per second.
OMG is set to launch the Plasma network by the end of 2018.
Technology Behind the Platform
OmiseGo has a fairly complex platform structure, being comprised of numerous moving components, so to better grasp how the underlying technology works, it’s best to analyze briefly the technical aspects of its four core elements:
ODEX Decentralized Exchange Protocol
The exchange has an infrastructure that will cater to a variety of markets, which will execute orders outside of the network’s PoS consensus, matching the orders off-chain and processing them on-chain.
Proof of Stake Consensus
Like other PoS systems, OmiseGo’s PoS is used as a validator network for those that stake the native OMG token, rewarding in transaction fees those that have exhibited good behavior and punishing those that have manifested bad behavior. However, OmiseGo is soft slashing penalty in which only the returns are slashed.
Plasma Network
Plasma is a layer 2 scalability solution which runs on Ethereum and is currently in the Plasma Cash stage of development.
White-Label Wallet Software SDK
That SDK is a white-label wallet, which means companies can integrate the wallet in numerous ways across different industries. Using the wallet, users are able to trade fiat currencies without restrictions together with decentralized currencies.
The wallet allows access to the OmiseGO payment gateway, a credit card, top-ups over the counter and through direct debit, and real-time settlement.
Final Words
OmiseGO is a complex payment and exchange platform which intends to bring balance and enhance the finance industry of today.
